July 7, 2000
JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — A group of 52 hunters and their family members were plucked off a huge ice-floe near Arctic Bay this week.
Early Tuesday morning, the 27 km. by 29 km. floe broke off and began floating down Admiralty Bay at a good speed to Lancaster Sound. Soon thereafter, the hunters called nearby Arctic Bay for help.
Within an hour after rousing Nunavut’s Emergency Services, a Parks Canada helicopter had been located in Pond Inlet, and the Polar Continental Shelf Project was flying down enough fuel from Resolute to keep the helicopter in the air.
While the stranded people waited for help to arrive, everyone gathered in the middle of the floe where the ice was at its thickest. From there, they left five or six at a time by helicopter, carrying only as many belongings as they could hold. Their hunting equipment stayed behind on the ice.
From Cape Crawford, they were shuttled back to Arctic Bay via Twin Otter. By 2:00 p.m. in Tuesday afternoon, the rescue operation was complete.
According to Nunavut emergency coordinator Eric Doig, the rescue went smoothly, "with horseshoes all the way."
He said officials planned to track the ice floe’s path to see if at some point the equipment might be safely salvaged.